Arrow Rock, MO - Part 2

Sunday (yesterday) was a beautiful sunny day - a little warmer (into the 70's). We went into Marshall (the nearest town of any size) about 15 miles west and went to worship service at the 1st Baptist Church. It is a fairly large church (congregation wise) - guessing between 100-150 in attendance. They had a praise/worship team of 9 members leading the music and the pastor delivered a good sermon to the area graduating seniors who were in attendance. We enjoyed the service. Went to Appleby's for lunch and then by Wal-Mart for a few needed items.

One of our favorite pastimes in this area is riding the back roads looking at all the farms and small communities, and looking for birds along the fence rows. All of the county roads are designated with letters. Over the last several days we’ve ridden roads P, H, AA, D, AC, TT, DD, H, E, and some others. All of these roads are paved, but narrow and not in the best of shape. There’s very little traffic and usually there’s no problem stopping to take a picture.

One of our favorite birds in this area is a Dickcissel. They sit on the power lines, fences, and small bushes and sing their hearts out. We also saw another Scissor-tailed Flycatcher. It's a little far north for them, but there he was!

Dickcissel

Another one

 

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher 

The houses and barns all along these back roads are really interesting. Here's a picture of one of our favorite places. Also, there is a farm that raises donkeys!

 

A lot of barns in this area have what are called "Barn Quilts". Barn quilts are colorful, large wooden blocks that are designed, painted and then hung on the side of barns. The quilts reflect a social history of the Westward expansion, of pioneering on the plains families, community and church throughout time. At night, everybody snuggled in bed under hand made quilts. There's a "Barn Quilt" trail with a map that shows all of them. 

 

This is big farm country with lots of corn fields. Their season is later than ours and some of the corn is just now coming up -- maybe an inch or two, and they are still planting some. They use a lot of big tractors and other fancy (expensive) equipment to plant and maintain the crops.

I said there’s not much traffic, but if you see a vehicle, it might just be some big piece of farm machinery - get out of the way!!

 

We’ve had an enjoyable, relaxing 6 days here at Arrow Rock, but it’s time to move on a little farther up the road. Tomorrow (Tuesday) we’re headed back west and then north up the Missouri River to Lewis & Clark State Park north of St. Joseph. Will be there a few days.